Schedule and Lions calls penalise Yorkshire again

Yorkshire’s director of cricket, Martyn Moxon, currently has plenty of ammunition for stoking old grievances.

He finds himself in a very similar situation to last season, when the congested fixture list and England Lions matches clashing with crucial LV County Championship games were serious bones of contention.

Yorkshire again have to go to Holland for a Clydesdale Bank 40 match just prior to a Championship four-day game. And for the latter fixture, at the Rose Bowl, they will be without Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root.

Both players are in the England Lions squad for the match against Sri Lanka A at Scarborough, a game for which title-chasing Lancashire again have no players selected. Yorkshire had to do without Bairstow and Ajmal Shahzad, who were on Lions duty against Sri Lanka, when they lost to Lancashire at Liverpool in May.

Moxon will consider resting key players for the Sunday July 31 game in Holland as the match against relegation rivals Hampshire starts two days later on Tuesday August 2.

Last year Yorkshire were forced to travel back from their Dutch trip by sea, which ate into preparation time ahead of a top-of-the-table encounter with Nottinghamshire.

This time they are battling at the wrong end of the table and Moxon said: “Next week’s game against Hampshire is a big one so maybe we will have to look at what would be the best use of our personnel in Holland. We will probably need to win at least two of our last five games to get out of trouble in the Championship.

“We’re flying out at 7am on Saturday morning to Holland. We’ve also brought the game forward to an 11am start, so we can catch a flight from Amsterdam to Southampton on Sunday night ready for the game on Tuesday. At least there’s no ferry this year!

“We’ve managed to secure flights, though we can’t take all our cases to Holland, so we’re going to have to leave some kit at Headingley for the coach to pick up to take to Southampton.”

Moxon was restrained on the subject of again losing players to England Lions, saying: “It is something of a double-edged sword. Everyone is delighted for them – especially Joe Root as this is the first time he has been named in the Lions squad. But we will miss them against Hampshire.”

One Response to Schedule and Lions calls penalise Yorkshire again

I agree its a non game in Holland and should be postponed or cancelled.
I remember when Yorkshire were in a competition and had to rush down to the Rosebowl to play Hants after a hard Roses match. Yorkshire lost no wonder Hants had not played all week.
Next week will be different Hants are in all sorts of problems. Batsmen out of form, Bowlers all over the place and the groundsmen keeps providing poor ( ecb words not mine) pitchs. Come on Yorkshire you can do it.